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Yes, I did already post this. But I changed it (for the better) and added photos. Please leave some questions or comments.
Preface
I was looking out of the taxi window, looking at planes landing and arriving in my favorite airport, O'Hare. I was lost in my own world, only to be startled by the driver asking me "Terminal 3" I replied "Yes" and he dropped me, my mom, and my dad off at the first American Airlines sign out on the curb. Our bags were unloaded and we walked inside the Terminal, to see that it was very cramped and hard to move around in because the check-in-areas were under construction. (The FACE project). After seeing that International Check in was way down, we went back outside and walked down the sidewalk, ignoring all the skycap offers (my Dad just does not like that) and entered to find a nice short line for International check-in was short. It would go a lot faster, but there was a very large group checking in for a flight to DCA. I wonder why they were all in the International check in line? Anyway, once we were checked in and had our 3 (they are small bags) checked through to FCO and scanned in the InVision screeners, we went and all cleared security. My Mom and Dad went to our departure gate, but I walked to Terminal Two, to the Air Wisconsin/United Express area to look for my cousin, who is a flight attendant. She was not around (turned out that flight was deleyed until 5:00pm) so I gave up my search and walked back to Terminal Three. I stopped at a store called "Altitunes" and bought the Linkin Park Metora C.D. It's really good. I returned to Terminal Three, passing under the really big globe before the H and K concource
I walked down the K concourse, to our gate, gate K5.
When I got back, they had already started bording Groups 1 and 2. I was in Group 5.
Here is our 767-300 waiting at the gate.
Finally, boarding was called for our flight. The gate agent scanned my boarding pass and gave me the entire thing back. Yes, the entire ticket, not just the stub. I got on and the entire aircraft was spotless. It was super clean. I walked through Business Class which looked really nice, back to the Main Cabin. It had blue seats with really comfortable leather headrests that were fully adjustable. Each seat had a wrapped thick red blanket, small pillow, and headphones sitting on each seat.
I took my seat in 25G. It was very comfortable and it had great legroom (I am 6') The crew was very professional and friendly. They were helping stow things and pretty soon, door 1L was closed and we pushed back. The safety video came on, in English and Italian and we taxied for a very long 45 minutes. As we were taxing down the runway, I noticed that there was a nasty stale air smell, and it was getting very warm. There were no air nozzles above people's heads, because the celing was high. We took off late, which would affect our arrival time. We finally took off on Runway 14L. We were going!
March 25, 2004
American Airlines flight AA110
Chicago (ORD) to Rome (FCO)
STD: 15:40
Pushback: 15:35
Wheels-Up: 16:32
STA: 7:55
Wheels-Down: 8:35
Boeing 767-300, Coach, Seat 25G
N352AA
Captain Carl Wagner
F/O John Shuster (forgot other persons name)
Flight Time: 8 hours 30 minutes
We had a somewhat slow climb, but I don't really know because I had never flown on a 767-300 before. Flight attendants started with a beverage service (full can) and handed out pretzel packets. The AAtractions system was acivated with CBS Eyes on American, 60 Minutes II, Without a Trace, and Still Standing. That ended around Long Island, New York and Dinner was served.
It was really good, Chicken Parmesan with Potato Wedges, Green Beans, Salad with Oil and Vinegar Dressing, A French Bread Roll with Soft Butter,and a really good Chocolate Chip Brownie. Shortly after dinner service, about One hour away from the Coast, I got a picture of the cabin before they started showing the movies.
The first movie they showed was "Under the Tuscan Sun" and the second was "In America". I could not fall asleep, so I pulled out the American Way Magazine and began to read it.
I finally got to sleep for about One Hour before the flight attendants came around with Breakfast and the fifth drink service.
It was really filling, a good warm crossant with raspberry jam, raspberry yogurt, Rasins, and Orange Juice. There were no customs forms to fill out and an hour after that, we were finally on the ground at the Rome Leanardo Da Vinci Airport. We got on the Tram, and then cleared security without declaring anything with no probelms. Bags were already waiting for us, we took them and took the advice from my aunt and uncle and went to the railway to get on the hourly, 32-minute train ride to the main railway station, Roma Termini, on the Leanardo Express train. We sat down near a man from Los Angeles, and a couple from Sarasota, Florida. Once we arrived in Termini Station, we had some trouble finding the place to buy Eurostar tickets. We did, and were on the 13:15 train.
The train had big comfortable red seats and the ride to Firenze (Florence) was about 1 hour and 30 minutes, whereas the InterCity (the main train) takes 3 hours and 30 minutes. We arrived at SMN Station (Santa Maria Novella) and walked to our hotel, the Fenice Palace.
Some Florence pictures, our last full day in Florence we took the City Bus (ATAF) number 7 to the city of Fiesole, up on the hill.
The center of the road.
After Three days in Florence, we lugged out bags back to the train station for our Eurostar Italia trip back to Roma.
Steps down to the train station
The Train Departure Board. We are the EuroStar to Napoli, it made a stop in Roma.
We spend an additional three days in Roma, in the very nice Hotel Mecenate Palace (I had my own room
) and we did more exploring. Here are some hotel pictures.
The main Hotel Lobby
My room, 204.
Here are some pictures from Rome. One thing I did not like, was that it was very dirty. There are a lot of taggers around.
After talking to our concerge at the hotel the previous night, he suggested that we get to Rome Fuminicino Airport about 2 hours before our flight left. He suggested that we take a cab, because it would be easier that having to lug our bags through Rome that morning, trying to get to Termini Station. We said to arrange a cab ride, and he did and it would get to our hotel at 9:45 that morning. I went back to my room, 204 and my parents went to theirs, 205 (we had seperate rooms because they were really small, but very nice). I crammed all my clothes and things into my suitcase and went to bed. I slept pretty bad that night, but hearing the rain hear the glass outside seemed a bit peaceful. I finally got to sleep around 2:00am, after going to bed at about 11:30 that night. The wake up call was at 8:00 and I got up, called my parents room (because they want to know that I am up) and got into the shower. We went up to the rooftop of the hotel for breakfast, and took some last minute pictures. We were all packed and went downstairs and checked out and the cab arrived at about 10:00 am.
We loaded our luggage into the car, a car called a Fiat Multipla. Try finding that in the United States. I don't think you can. After going through all of that stop-and-go Rome traffic, we finally got on the "Autostrada" or Highway. I was sad to leave Italy, but we had to. Our cab driver dropped us off at the last terminal, Terminal C. We arrived at about 10:45
A really cool fountain outside of Terminal C.
Terminal C Departures
Our plane waits at gate C30 on a rainy April 1.
We entered the somewhat cramed ticket desk area, all the United States based airlines are near eachother, so the 3 American Airlines counters were near the ones for US Airways and Delta. We got checked in and our bags were sent to ORD. We cleared security with no probelms and my parents went to a Duty-Free shop I saught out a window. Here is what I saw-
- Flyglobespan 737
- Blue Panorama 767
- Iranair A310
- Alitalia...everything
-Tunisair A320
I was looking at all the cool airlines that do not come to the United States when my parents yelled for me to hurry up. We saw that our gate, C30 was a satelite gate and that meant that we had to ride the airport tram, called the "Skybridge". We stood there for about 30 seconds and the tram came. We got on, and it started up. It goes very fast. We arrived at the gates and we went to C30, where our 767-300 was waiting for us.
American Airlines flight 111
Rome, Italy (FCO) - Chicago, Illinois (ORD)
STD: 12:30pm
ATD: 12:55pm
STA: 2:55pm
ATA: 2:10pm (40 minutes EARLY!)
Flight Time: 8 hours 17 minutes
Boeing 767-300 (Reg Unknown) Coach Class, Seat 22C
Departure: Terminal C International, Gate C30 (T
Arrival: Terminal 5, Gate M1
We were welcomed onto the aircraft by smiling flight attendents, one recognized us from the flight we took to Rome. We walked through business class, and watched the people drink their cocktails in their nice seats with the footrests up. We made our way to Row 22, where someone was in our middle seat. We told her that this was Row 22, and she was so embarassed, and went to Row 23. The rows on the 767-300 are staggered, and the signs above are not right. Odd. The safety video came on, in both English and Italian. It was a bit long. We took off 20 minutes late, right after a US Airways A330. (Stupid Question- But is US Airways planes Black or Dark (Navy) Blue?) Anyway, shortly after take off, the pilot announced our route: We would be going North over Italy and turning left over England. We would continue north over Iceland and Newfoundland and Canada. He also announced with headwinds, we would get to ORD 40 minutes ahead. Nice. The flight attendent got the "AAtractions" system started with a Duty Free Catalog show. Then it was Eyes on American, a bunch of CBS show snippets. I liked that because Yes, Dear was featured on there. Eventually Without A Trace came on, and meal service started. It was a choice of Salmon and Rice or Chicken and Potatos. I had the Chicken and it was covered in a cheese sauce. It was very good. Another salad and it had these very good Italian Tomatoes on it. Bread Roll and Butter and a cake-type thing for dessert. Water to drink. MMMMMM...good. The CBS shows ended, and I thought they would put the movies on, but we flew for about 4 more hours and then the f/a realized she did not put the tape in, so she ran up and activated the "AAtractions" system again, with "Under The Tuscan Sun" and "In America" The same movies we saw going to Rome. Oh well. Our pilots came on and told us to look out the window, Newfoundland was covered in really thick ice. It was really a cool sight. He then told us we were finally over Canada, and would be arriving in 2 hours. 30 minutes later, a snack was handed out, which was a personal pan pizza very good, grapes, and shortbread cookes. Water again. After a quick nap, the flight attendent put the arrival video on. It basically told you how to get around customs, what to do with filling out the forms and all. It also showed how to get to the other terminals (1, 2, and 3) from Terminal 5 which is not attached to the others. We touched down, 40 minutes early, as promised. After a short taxi, we arrived at the very last gate in the International Terminal, M1. Damn. Oh well, after a 20 minute, YES 20 minute walk to customs, we cleared it fast. Bags were coming out on claim 4, and my bag got all wet because some other pax had water that exploded or something. We were about to leave, when the customs agent showed us that our form was not stamped, just our passports. He was a nice guy, who let us cut in front of everyone to get it restamped and leave. We walked out into the main area, under the large "International Arriving Passengers" sign. We got onto the airport train, took it to Remote Parking and drove home. It was good to be back in the United States, where people could speak English. I was home. Italy was great.
Comments and Questions are greatly appreciated!
Long Live Italia!
viva la Italia!
Preface
I was looking out of the taxi window, looking at planes landing and arriving in my favorite airport, O'Hare. I was lost in my own world, only to be startled by the driver asking me "Terminal 3" I replied "Yes" and he dropped me, my mom, and my dad off at the first American Airlines sign out on the curb. Our bags were unloaded and we walked inside the Terminal, to see that it was very cramped and hard to move around in because the check-in-areas were under construction. (The FACE project). After seeing that International Check in was way down, we went back outside and walked down the sidewalk, ignoring all the skycap offers (my Dad just does not like that) and entered to find a nice short line for International check-in was short. It would go a lot faster, but there was a very large group checking in for a flight to DCA. I wonder why they were all in the International check in line? Anyway, once we were checked in and had our 3 (they are small bags) checked through to FCO and scanned in the InVision screeners, we went and all cleared security. My Mom and Dad went to our departure gate, but I walked to Terminal Two, to the Air Wisconsin/United Express area to look for my cousin, who is a flight attendant. She was not around (turned out that flight was deleyed until 5:00pm) so I gave up my search and walked back to Terminal Three. I stopped at a store called "Altitunes" and bought the Linkin Park Metora C.D. It's really good. I returned to Terminal Three, passing under the really big globe before the H and K concource
I walked down the K concourse, to our gate, gate K5.
When I got back, they had already started bording Groups 1 and 2. I was in Group 5.
Here is our 767-300 waiting at the gate.Finally, boarding was called for our flight. The gate agent scanned my boarding pass and gave me the entire thing back. Yes, the entire ticket, not just the stub. I got on and the entire aircraft was spotless. It was super clean. I walked through Business Class which looked really nice, back to the Main Cabin. It had blue seats with really comfortable leather headrests that were fully adjustable. Each seat had a wrapped thick red blanket, small pillow, and headphones sitting on each seat.
March 25, 2004
American Airlines flight AA110
Chicago (ORD) to Rome (FCO)
STD: 15:40
Pushback: 15:35
Wheels-Up: 16:32
STA: 7:55
Wheels-Down: 8:35
Boeing 767-300, Coach, Seat 25G
N352AA
Captain Carl Wagner
F/O John Shuster (forgot other persons name)
Flight Time: 8 hours 30 minutes
We had a somewhat slow climb, but I don't really know because I had never flown on a 767-300 before. Flight attendants started with a beverage service (full can) and handed out pretzel packets. The AAtractions system was acivated with CBS Eyes on American, 60 Minutes II, Without a Trace, and Still Standing. That ended around Long Island, New York and Dinner was served.
It was really good, Chicken Parmesan with Potato Wedges, Green Beans, Salad with Oil and Vinegar Dressing, A French Bread Roll with Soft Butter,and a really good Chocolate Chip Brownie. Shortly after dinner service, about One hour away from the Coast, I got a picture of the cabin before they started showing the movies. The first movie they showed was "Under the Tuscan Sun" and the second was "In America". I could not fall asleep, so I pulled out the American Way Magazine and began to read it. I finally got to sleep for about One Hour before the flight attendants came around with Breakfast and the fifth drink service. It was really filling, a good warm crossant with raspberry jam, raspberry yogurt, Rasins, and Orange Juice. There were no customs forms to fill out and an hour after that, we were finally on the ground at the Rome Leanardo Da Vinci Airport. We got on the Tram, and then cleared security without declaring anything with no probelms. Bags were already waiting for us, we took them and took the advice from my aunt and uncle and went to the railway to get on the hourly, 32-minute train ride to the main railway station, Roma Termini, on the Leanardo Express train. We sat down near a man from Los Angeles, and a couple from Sarasota, Florida. Once we arrived in Termini Station, we had some trouble finding the place to buy Eurostar tickets. We did, and were on the 13:15 train.The train had big comfortable red seats and the ride to Firenze (Florence) was about 1 hour and 30 minutes, whereas the InterCity (the main train) takes 3 hours and 30 minutes. We arrived at SMN Station (Santa Maria Novella) and walked to our hotel, the Fenice Palace.
Some Florence pictures, our last full day in Florence we took the City Bus (ATAF) number 7 to the city of Fiesole, up on the hill.
The center of the road.After Three days in Florence, we lugged out bags back to the train station for our Eurostar Italia trip back to Roma.
Steps down to the train station The Train Departure Board. We are the EuroStar to Napoli, it made a stop in Roma.We spend an additional three days in Roma, in the very nice Hotel Mecenate Palace (I had my own room
) and we did more exploring. Here are some hotel pictures. The main Hotel Lobby My room, 204.Here are some pictures from Rome. One thing I did not like, was that it was very dirty. There are a lot of taggers around.
After talking to our concerge at the hotel the previous night, he suggested that we get to Rome Fuminicino Airport about 2 hours before our flight left. He suggested that we take a cab, because it would be easier that having to lug our bags through Rome that morning, trying to get to Termini Station. We said to arrange a cab ride, and he did and it would get to our hotel at 9:45 that morning. I went back to my room, 204 and my parents went to theirs, 205 (we had seperate rooms because they were really small, but very nice). I crammed all my clothes and things into my suitcase and went to bed. I slept pretty bad that night, but hearing the rain hear the glass outside seemed a bit peaceful. I finally got to sleep around 2:00am, after going to bed at about 11:30 that night. The wake up call was at 8:00 and I got up, called my parents room (because they want to know that I am up) and got into the shower. We went up to the rooftop of the hotel for breakfast, and took some last minute pictures. We were all packed and went downstairs and checked out and the cab arrived at about 10:00 am.
We loaded our luggage into the car, a car called a Fiat Multipla. Try finding that in the United States. I don't think you can. After going through all of that stop-and-go Rome traffic, we finally got on the "Autostrada" or Highway. I was sad to leave Italy, but we had to. Our cab driver dropped us off at the last terminal, Terminal C. We arrived at about 10:45
A really cool fountain outside of Terminal C. Terminal C DeparturesOur plane waits at gate C30 on a rainy April 1.We entered the somewhat cramed ticket desk area, all the United States based airlines are near eachother, so the 3 American Airlines counters were near the ones for US Airways and Delta. We got checked in and our bags were sent to ORD. We cleared security with no probelms and my parents went to a Duty-Free shop I saught out a window. Here is what I saw-
- Flyglobespan 737
- Blue Panorama 767
- Iranair A310
- Alitalia...everything
-Tunisair A320
I was looking at all the cool airlines that do not come to the United States when my parents yelled for me to hurry up. We saw that our gate, C30 was a satelite gate and that meant that we had to ride the airport tram, called the "Skybridge". We stood there for about 30 seconds and the tram came. We got on, and it started up. It goes very fast. We arrived at the gates and we went to C30, where our 767-300 was waiting for us.
American Airlines flight 111
Rome, Italy (FCO) - Chicago, Illinois (ORD)
STD: 12:30pm
ATD: 12:55pm
STA: 2:55pm
ATA: 2:10pm (40 minutes EARLY!)
Flight Time: 8 hours 17 minutes
Boeing 767-300 (Reg Unknown) Coach Class, Seat 22C
Departure: Terminal C International, Gate C30 (T
Arrival: Terminal 5, Gate M1
We were welcomed onto the aircraft by smiling flight attendents, one recognized us from the flight we took to Rome. We walked through business class, and watched the people drink their cocktails in their nice seats with the footrests up. We made our way to Row 22, where someone was in our middle seat. We told her that this was Row 22, and she was so embarassed, and went to Row 23. The rows on the 767-300 are staggered, and the signs above are not right. Odd. The safety video came on, in both English and Italian. It was a bit long. We took off 20 minutes late, right after a US Airways A330. (Stupid Question- But is US Airways planes Black or Dark (Navy) Blue?) Anyway, shortly after take off, the pilot announced our route: We would be going North over Italy and turning left over England. We would continue north over Iceland and Newfoundland and Canada. He also announced with headwinds, we would get to ORD 40 minutes ahead. Nice. The flight attendent got the "AAtractions" system started with a Duty Free Catalog show. Then it was Eyes on American, a bunch of CBS show snippets. I liked that because Yes, Dear was featured on there. Eventually Without A Trace came on, and meal service started. It was a choice of Salmon and Rice or Chicken and Potatos. I had the Chicken and it was covered in a cheese sauce. It was very good. Another salad and it had these very good Italian Tomatoes on it. Bread Roll and Butter and a cake-type thing for dessert. Water to drink. MMMMMM...good. The CBS shows ended, and I thought they would put the movies on, but we flew for about 4 more hours and then the f/a realized she did not put the tape in, so she ran up and activated the "AAtractions" system again, with "Under The Tuscan Sun" and "In America" The same movies we saw going to Rome. Oh well. Our pilots came on and told us to look out the window, Newfoundland was covered in really thick ice. It was really a cool sight. He then told us we were finally over Canada, and would be arriving in 2 hours. 30 minutes later, a snack was handed out, which was a personal pan pizza very good, grapes, and shortbread cookes. Water again. After a quick nap, the flight attendent put the arrival video on. It basically told you how to get around customs, what to do with filling out the forms and all. It also showed how to get to the other terminals (1, 2, and 3) from Terminal 5 which is not attached to the others. We touched down, 40 minutes early, as promised. After a short taxi, we arrived at the very last gate in the International Terminal, M1. Damn. Oh well, after a 20 minute, YES 20 minute walk to customs, we cleared it fast. Bags were coming out on claim 4, and my bag got all wet because some other pax had water that exploded or something. We were about to leave, when the customs agent showed us that our form was not stamped, just our passports. He was a nice guy, who let us cut in front of everyone to get it restamped and leave. We walked out into the main area, under the large "International Arriving Passengers" sign. We got onto the airport train, took it to Remote Parking and drove home. It was good to be back in the United States, where people could speak English. I was home. Italy was great.
Comments and Questions are greatly appreciated!
Long Live Italia!viva la Italia!
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